Of Men, Lies, and Dreams
by ianna28
Summary: AU Slash Another rash of murders has Ryan going in circles trying to figure out why they died and by who. Eric is still trying to find out the secret of Ryan and stumbles upon something Ryan doesn't want anyone to know. Sequel to Dirty Fangs, 2nd in serie
1. Chapter 1

A/N: So here we go, another update, another story, the first chapter. Not too much excitement going on. I'm hoping that this one will be longer than the first one, it might, it might not, we'll see, but I'm certainly gonna try. Hope you like!

Disclaimer: I do own Ryan, he's about two inches and lives with his brother Greg. I keep them in a cage, and they're surprisingly furry. Unfortunately I own hampsters, CBS and Jerry B. and the writers and stchuff own the real CSI Miami. Oh! But I do own Kendrel.

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Ryan tried to hide in the corner of Pretérito in his booth while Kendrel was on stage. He still wasn't sure how he had gotten dragged down there that night but there he was, trying to stay as far away from his friend as he could. Last time he had made the mistake of sitting at a table in the main area, and she had thought it would be funny to include him in her show. It was the last time he would do that. Much like the first time he had found himself in the club he had one drink, but this time he was sipping a Jack Rose. He might as well try new things while he was out and about.

Tonight Kendrel had decided to mix up her show. Some nights she danced, some night she sang, tonight she decided to do both. Ryan shook his head and took a sip of his drink. He jumped a little when he felt the weight in the booth shift to one side as someone else sat down. He looked over and blinked to see Eric.

"Since when do you populate clubs?" Eric looked at Ryan, his own drink in his hands.

"Since Kendrel started dragging me down here. She says that I don't care about her enough because I never see her perform." Ryan rolled his eyes. "As if rearranging my sleeping schedule to make her dinner wasn't enough." Eric chuckled and shook his head. "What are you doing down here?"

"I'm a club person believe it or not." Eric raised his glass. "I was just shocked that you're here."

"Well this is actually where I met Kendrel you know," Ryan put his drink on a napkin on the table. "Considering this is the last place that Heather Tillsend was seen, so it naturally was the first I went." Ryan shrugged a little. He was suddenly aware of Kendrel's singing getting closer to where they sat and he instantly regretted coming at all. Eric looked up and raised an eyebrow.

Kendrel slid next to Ryan and laced her arms around his neck singing to him. Ryan turned red and tried to slip away. This action only prompted her to pull him closer and sing into his ear.

Estás perdiendo el tiempo

Pensando, pensando

Por lo que más tú quieras

¿Hasta cuándo¿Hasta cuándo?

Y así pasan los días

Y yo, desesperando

Y tú, tú contestando

Quizás, quizás, quizás

Eric smirked as Ryan turned bright red. He didn't know if Ryan knew Spanish but he was pretty sure that he did judging his reaction. "Get away from me," Ryan hissed low enough so her microphone didn't pick it up. Eric couldn't help but chuckle, only to receive a glare from the embarrassed man next to him.

Kendrel smirked and kissed the corner of Ryan's mouth then slowly let go of him getting up and wandering around the other tables, serenading other lucky souls, or unlucky as Ryan thought of them. He looked at Eric and narrowed his eyes to find the Cuban still chuckling. "Shut up, it wasn't funny."

"Oh, I beg to differ," Eric coughed, trying to get rid of the laugh in his throat. "What makes this whole thing more amusing is the fact that you tried to avoid her by sitting back here. I do have to wonder how long she has in fact been working here." Eric almost muttered the last part to himself. Ryan shrugged and took a sip of his drink, starting to regain the original color in his cheeks.

"I think she mentioned something like, three years. Right after this place opened." Ryan sat up a little straighter in the booth. "Wonder who owns this place anyway. This place is really popular for only being three years in the making, you know?"

"Yeah, lucky guy," Eric took a long swig of his own bottle. "I'll be right back, you want a refill?" He eyed Ryan's glass with amusement.

Ryan shot him a look. "No, thank you. I'm good. Get, I won't be going anywhere." He turned back to watch Kendrel finish her song and some of the men in the crowd gives cheers and cat calls. Ryan shook his head a little when a scream got his attention. His head whipped to the side and he quickly slid out of the booth, drink forgotten and was pushing past curious customers. He heard the scream again and was this time able to pinpoint in the hallway by the bathrooms. He stopped behind a frightened young woman who had screamed and his eyes widened.

The men's bathroom door was propped open by a man lying on the ground. A dead man lying on the ground. Ryan took the woman's arms and turned he back to the safety of the crowd, turning her around she wouldn't have to see the body. He then leaned down and double checked for a pulse on the man's neck. Nothing. Ryan titled the man's head, instinctively looking for marks on his neck, like ones that he had experienced himself only three months ago.

An older man pushed his way through the crowd, in his late-thirties Ryan had guessed, a little older than the people who populated his place. "What's going on here? Oh god! Is that guy dead?" Ryan resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Damn. Alright! Everybody out! Club's closing early tonight." To Ryan's relief he had done something smart and was herding the crowd out. When the police got here though they were going to want to talk to all those people.

The man soon came back and walked over to Ryan, who was still inspecting the man's body. "I'm the manager of this club. What do you want me to do?" He looked at Ryan, who obviously seemed to look like he was more in charge of the situation than the manager himself.

"First things first, the police are going to have to be called." Ryan stood up to look at the man. "Second, you're gonna want to get your boss, or whoever owns this place down here. And do you have a list of everyone who came to the bar tonight? The police are going to want to question them I can guarantee it."

"Yeah, we always keep a list of comes here. Every person who enters that front door has to either have a member's card or pays a free up front. We get all the information." Ryan nodded. He remembered the fee from the first time he came here. He had just used his credit card though and figured they probably get his name and information from the transaction. After that he always came in with Kendrel through the employee's entrance.

"You should probably get a list of every employee who was tonight ready too." The manager nodded again.

"I'll get right on that. I'll call the owner first," the manager looked around then blinked. "Never mind he's here tonight. I'll send him over." The man scurried off and Ryan shook his head. He leaned back down to study the body. He found it odd how the man had no physical wounds or scars. He'd have to wait for the Medical Examiner to come and determine COD, but he could pretty much stake this wasn't a natural death.

"You just attract the dead bodies, don't you, Slick?" He glanced up as Kendrel had wandered over.

"Now, what's a pretty lady like you doing over here, Kandy?" Ryan smirked at her and stood back up. "This scene isn't for the faint of heart."

"Then I guess I should be taking you away, huh?" She chuckled then looked at the guy. "He can't be more than 22 years old," she remarked. "What do you think it was?"

"I'm not sure, but I'm gonna guess that it wasn't a heart attack or anything. I'm gonna lean towards murder of some kind. I'm just not sure how yet."

"Too bad you ain't the police, sweety." She pat his cheek. "You'd have all the answers. But until then," she smiled at him. Ryan rolled his eyes and stood up.

"Does something look odd to you? About the body I mean?" Ryan frowned a little, his eyebrow pinched together. "I can't figure it out, but something just seems, off." He walked around the body, this time determined to figure out what was wrong.

"I don't know, is there?" Kendrel raised an eyebrow at him. "You do know that the police are going to hate you, you're contaminating their crime scene." Ryan snorted.

"Like they do anything anyway. I could solve half their crime scenes in two days if I had all the resources."

"Well you have at least half their resources."

"How's that?"

"Well, you have you information go to man, Horatio." She held up her hand ticking out the points on her fingers. "You have weapons girl, Calleigh. We of course can't forget dear old Eric," she bit her tongue, "he helps out in the police department. And then there's Alexx, or Dr. Woods, whichever you prefer. I know you, and before the day is out you'll have a full report just like the police of how this man died."

Ryan looked at her and smacked his lips a little. "You know, sometimes, I think you just do things to piss me off don't you?" Kendrel just flashed a smile at him.

"Hey, mister," the manager was headed back towards Ryan. "I got the owner right here."

"Good," Ryan stood back up and turned outing out his hand towards the man behind the manager and stopped, eyes wide.

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A/N: So that's the first chapter. Oh and the translation (from the website I have) for the lyrics that she sang to Ryan are,

You are wasting time  
Thinking, thinking  
That which you want most  
Until when? Until when?

The days pass this way  
And I am despairing  
And you, you always answer  
Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps

So there you go. The great thing is I know exactly why the guy is dead, and what is gonna happen to both Eric and Ryan in this one, and it's gonna be some good stuff man, good stuff. A tad angsty at some points too, and some fluff I think. I think most of the fluff comes in the next story int he series thoguh. Anyway! I'm getting ahead of myself, next chapter to come soon, be on the lookout. I like reviews. ::puppy dog eyes and pouty lip::


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Second chapter, here you go. I've brought in someone else who we all know and love. There shall be visits from the other characters in up coming chapters. Sorry for a slow update, I've been busy at school and with work, and just blah, stress. So enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do own Ryan, he's about two inches and lives with his brother Greg. I keep them in a cage, and they're surprisingly furry. Unfortunately I own hampsters, CBS and Jerry B. and the writers and stchuff own the real CSI Miami. Oh! But I do own Kendrel.

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"Eric?!" Ryan's arm was seemingly frozen in place and Eric reached out to shake it.

"Well, fancy seeing you here," Eric muttered under his breath. He glanced over at the body and made a face. "This isn't going to go over well."

"You own this club?" Ryan seemed to still be in a state of shock. "But, what? I'm confused."

Eric shrugged a little. "It's my night job, the police station doesn't pay that well, and unfortunately I'm not charging you an hourly rate whenever you need help. I need to pay the bills." He sighed a little, attention back on the dead body that occupying his club. "Again, I reiterate, this isn't going to go over well, especially not down at the station."

"No, I imagine it won't." It took Ryan a minute to regain his thought process and find his voice. He'd have to have a talk with Eric later, but right now they had a dead guy on their hands and about eighty witnesses and suspects. "It's gonna be a long night for the cops," he remarked.

In all this time Ryan finally noticed that Kendrel had yet to say a word about the whole situation. He glanced over at her and saw that she was wearing a faint smile. "And what has you so happy?"

"Not happy, intrigued, so to say." She smirked fully at him. "This is just too good, and to see the look on your face-"

"At a dead body?"

"-when you found out about Eric." There was more than just a hint of amusement in her tone. Ryan wanted to groan, shove her in the bathroom and lock her there until he was well and far away from the club.

"You knew all along, didn't you?" Ryan accused, the thought suddenly popping into her head. "You knew who owned this bar!" He suddenly turned on Eric, finger out and accusing, poking his chest lightly. "And you, you knew about her working here! Were you two in cahoots? How come no one told me?" Ryan was nearing hysterics, his need for information getting the best of him.

"Calm down, Ry." Kandy was still smirking, but sobered down slightly. "I knew he owned this bar, but I doubt that he knew that I worked here."

"No, I didn't." Eric spoke up this time. "I'm pretty sure that if I had known, I might have tried to get her fired, or something."

"Eric!" Ryan hissed. "Just because you two don't like each other."

"Trust me," Kandy purred dangerously at Eric, "you wouldn't have been able to get me fired. I bring in about a quarter of your profit, querido." Eric scowled at her and her use of the term of endearment; he was anything but her darling. He was about to retaliate with a few choice words in his native language when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned his head and saw that Ryan gripped his shoulder, the anger of not being told about his two friends knowing each other temporarily gone.

"Listen, you two fighting isn't gonna look good when the police get here, much less if any witnesses say that they saw you fighting. " Ryan let go of Eric's shoulder and he was disappointed, if only for a second. He ignored the feeling and nodded knowing that Ryan was right. "Kandy, I think you should go change then come back out, I'll go wait for Alexx and go back with her and the body."

"Dr. Woods?" Eric looked at Ryan. "How do you know Alexx? She isn't going to let you just ride back her, especially not with the body. You're not part of the force."

"You're not the only ones with connections, Eric," Ryan smirked at him. "I bet I can get her report before the officer in charge of this case will. Then I can really get down to business and figure out what happened here."

"Since when were you on this case, Wolfe?" He was starting to get annoyed. Ryan had noticed, Eric only called him by his last name when he was annoyed, or Ryan had done something to piss him off.

"Since I took a vested interest in it," he turned to look back at the body. His hand subconsciously went up to rub his neck where he had faded scars of his last encounter with death. "Since I deducted that this was not a natural death." Ryan walked past Eric and Kendrel and intot the bathroom o investigate before the police got there.

"Seems like a touchy subject," Eric muttered under his breath.

"Well maybe you should pay him for investigating this." Kandy was looking at her nails and avoiding Eric's eyes, but he could tell that her voice used the same intensity as if she were looking at him with orbs of fire.

"Wait? Why?" Eric shot her a look, not afraid to look at the woman standing in front of him. "Why don't you pay him if you doing so well."

"Because it isn't my club he's trying to clear from murder." This time Kandy did look at him, the conviction clear in her eyes. "He's not expecting payment, he's doing this a personal favor." She stood up to her full height and started to walk towards her dressing room.

"I thought he said it was because it didn't look natural and he knew that the police wouldn't be able to figure it out." Eric offered causing her to stop.

She turned her head back to him. "If you were almost killed twice wouldn't you have an interest in this?" Her voice was soft this time but never lost its edge. She turned back around leaving Eric to stand by the body still on the ground.

Ryan sat on the small stool, his back leaning against the metal gurney in the chilled morgue. He watched the tall, dark skinned woman sew up the Y-shaped incision on the man that he had been next to him in the van they rode in.

"So, what's the verdict, Alexx?" Ryan leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees.

"Well," she took off her gloves with a snap and leaned her hands down on the table and looked at Ryan over the body. "There were no physical wounds visible, and something weird about his organs inside the body. Baby boy is a weird case, Ryan."

Ryan sat up straight suddenly at her description. _No physical wounds visible. Internal organs blackened and hard._ "What do you mean weird, Alexx?" He stood up walking over to her, almost praying that it was how his parents had been found.

"Well, files say he's 24 years old. But his organs were aged to that of a 60 year old." Ryan blinked and raised an eyebrow.

"Are you saying that his body aged on the inside?" Ryan looked down at the face of the man. "But he looks like his real age, that doesn't make any sense."

"You tell me how it happened, baby. I just open them up and tell you what's wrong." She gave him a little smirk and walked over patting his cheek. "How you doing yourself, baby?"

Ryan just smiled at her softly. "I'm fine, Alexx." Her fingers ran over his scars on his neck and he suppressed the urge to shiver. "They're almost gone, but I think that that's as faded as they're gonna get. Two months later and I'm still reminded of it every time I look in the mirror."

"We're just glad to have you here. Now, here's your copy of the report." She pulled out a folder and handed it to him. When Ryan looked through he grinned and hugged Alexx. She had slipped all of the victim's information into it too.

"Thanks, Alexx. You're a real sweetheart." He hugged her with one arm and she just smiled patting his back.

"Now shoo, I have other bodies to inspect and I don't need you wandering around to distract me," she told him playfully. Ryan smirked and kissed her cheek and practically hopped out of the morgue.

Ryan unlocked the door to his apartment and walked in, looking through all the papers that Alexx had given him. He dropped his jacket and keys on the table and kicked the door closed. He went to drop on the couch when he was suddenly thrown to the floor.

"Jesus Ryan! Watch where you're about to sit." Ryan's eyes widened and he looked over to see Kendrel sitting there.

"What the hell! I didn't know you were even going to be here." Ryan quickly picked up the folder he had dropped and set it on the coffee table. He pushed himself off and smoothed any wrinkles that had gotten in his shirt. "What the hell are you even doing here in the first place?"

"You suddenly find it uncommon to see me in your apartment?" She smirked at him, crossing her leg over her knee and bouncing her foot back and forth.

"Well, no, but I just didn't think that you'd be coming over tonight. It's like you practically live here anyway." He walked into the kitchen to fix them some drinks, he normal routine when Kandy came over. "I also thought that you and Eric would still be going at it." He rolled his eyes slightly at his last statement.

"Hey, come on now. I knew that he owned the club, but he didn't know that I worked there." Kendrel walked over to meet him in the kitchen to take her drink. "He rarely comes into the place when it's busy like that, it's usually just to check the place over, be there for inspections, and any meetings he has with the wait staff and managers. Are you telling me that you're still upset about it?"

"Well, don't I have a right to be? I mean, my two friends, who don't really like each other, work at the same place. And it's not even that," Ryan took a drink of his glass, nearly draining the water he had filled it with. Kendrel took the glass and went to fill it with something stronger than water. "It's the fact that one of them knew and didn't tell me. I'm not going to split my life between the two of you, because then I'd never get any sleep." He took a drink from his glass and made a face staring at Kendrel. "You put whiskey in my glass."

"I figured you needed it," she replied dryly, taking a swig from her own glass. Ryan sighed and took another hesitant drink before pouring the rest into her glass.

"I don't need to be drunk right now. I need to work on this case." He walked away and into his bedroom to change. Kendrel dropped a few ice cubes into her glass and headed back into the living room. She noticed a folder on Ryan's desk and picked it up, thinking it was his current case. She opened it and blinked. Before she could read it all she heard Ryan's door opening, Kendrel quickly shoved the folder into her purse and sat down.

"Can you at least promise me that you won't start any arguments with Eric?" Ryan came back out and looked at her. "Please?"

Kendrel sighed and nodded. "But only for you." Ryan smiled and mouthed 'Thank you.'

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A/N: I hope to get the next chapter up within like two days, but it depends. So here's to hoping, and read and review:D


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: And Chapter three is here! Sorry for the wait, but I had some fun writing this chapter, and it's longer than the others. There's some Eric Ryan coming up, and there's some in this chapter. I already have some other scenes written cause there were in my head and needed to be written out. You'll have plenty of warning later because this rating of that chapter will jump to M, and you'll see why. But that's not now, that's later. So for now Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do own Ryan, he's about two inches and lives with his brother Greg. I keep them in a cage, and they're surprisingly furry. Unfortunately I own hampsters, CBS and Jerry B. and the writers and stchuff own the real CSI Miami. Oh! But I do own Kendrel.

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The next day Ryan decided to pay Horatio a visit for some information that might help him with this current case. Horatio was more than happy to let him in, and for once Calleigh was outside of her weapons lab, as Ryan had come to call it.

"Am I correct in saying that you have decided to take on the job of figuring out why that man was murdered?" Horatio opened the doors to his vast library and Ryan nodded as he stepped in.

"Well, looking at the outcome of your last case, I'd say you're better than the police." Calleigh backed him up with her ever bright southern personality. Ryan smiled appreciatively at the Southern Belle and stepped into the library. It didn't go unnoticed by the two that he was unusually quiet this time, but decided that this was not the time to question him.

Ryan set down the autopsy report and grabbed a few books off the shelves. He wasn't exactly sure where to start. The victim had aged from the inside, but he also noticed that it had been reported that he had sex, consensual sex, before death, immediately before death. He wasn't sure, but Ryan had a hunch that the two were connected somehow. Ryan decided to look up aging first, as that seemed the most dominate trait and the cause of death.

Several hours later Kendrel walked into the library and over to Ryan. By this time Ryan had fallen asleep, his cheek against the desk, and multiple books opened. She glanced over the report then at the books, noting for one that he was researching the fabled Fountain of Youth, a couple other books open to a few demons who main Modus Operandi were to suck the youth from their victims. Biting her lip she decided to help him out in his search.

Grabbing the correct book that he would need off of the shelf she opened it and laid it down on the table in front of him, without waking him up. She walked out and saw Horatio standing outside of the doors. When she closed the doors and faced Horatio she had a smirk on her face.

"Putting all that money to good use I see. I haven't seen your library since your parents had started it." She smiled at him and he motioned for her to follow as they started a trek through his large mansion. "You have expanded it quite a bit."

"Yes, and to good use I can see." He looked at Kendrel with a sideways glance, small smirk apparent on his lips. "I'm glad to see that someone is using it."

Kendrel let out a laugh. "You've probably read through all those books already. All he would have to do is ask you, but you put him through the motions."

Horatio nodded. "Mr. Wolfe, he is an interesting man. To say the least." They walked out into the Miami sun, walking through the gardens at the back of the house. Kendrel leaned down and picked a Day Lily that had decided to bloom today. "But I also sense that he is getting his own use out of those books."

Kendrel nodded slightly. "Yes, I believe that he is. I also think that he's hiding something." She looked at Horatio with a knowing look.

Horatio looked at her and chuckled and shook his head. "No, you don't think that. You know he is." Kendrel snorted and nodded her head. She reached into her bag and took out the files she had found at Ryan's place.

"This isn't natural, Horatio, and Ryan knows it." Horatio flipped through the pages and frowned slightly. "Do you have any ideas about what happened?"

Horatio shook his head. "I've never heard of anything like this. But it would seem that someone doesn't want anyone to know either. The Boston police department terminated the investigation, no doubt due to circumstantial deaths."

"So it's a cold case?"

"It would seem that it's a missing case." He looked over the notes. "These are the original files and they were never returned to the police department. Am I correct in assuming that you found these in the possession of Mr. Wolfe?" Kendrel nodded. He closed the folder and handed it back to Kendrel. "I'll look into it and see what could have caused that." He looked at Kendrel then and noticed she wore a trouble expression. "Do you have any insight into the case?"

Kendrel shook her head. "No, I was just thinking, sorry." She put on a smile. She looked around the garden and back at the house and chuckled softly to herself. "You know, your parents would have been proud of what you've done with this place. I had told them that it was too big, that they'd never find a use for all the rooms."

Horatio chuckled. "They never did, there are still a few rooms I have yet to put to use."

"Ah, but you have gone farther than your parents. I'm pretty sure Calleigh could come up with a few uses."

"I'm sure she could," Horatio smiled softly at the mention of her name. Kendrel smirked but didn't say anything as they continued their path through the gardens.

When Kendrel returned to the library she noticed that Ryan had indeed woken up. She didn't feel so bad for keeping him up last night when she saw how busy he was. He had engrossed himself in the book that she had laid out. "Well, hello book worm." He turned his head as she approached him. "Find anything?"

"I think so, I'm not sure though. Ever heard of an Incubus?" He looked at her, setting his pen down on his notebook.

"Heard the name in passing. Why?" She decided not to tell him that she was the one who had placed the book out, it would bring down his demeanor and possibly ego a touch. Now she was almost tempted to tell him, but she would save the ego popping pleasure to use on Eric someday soon.

"Well, the COD's of the victims are all concurrent with the way that the Incubus takes its victims. Seduces them, has sex with them, and then pretty much steals the life from them to stay alive." He pulled a book over to him pointing.

"But Incubi only lay with women, not men." Kendrel pointed out. "Don't you think you're looking for a Succubus?"

Ryan shook his head. "I already looked it up, it's not the same. They are definitely connected but it doesn't correlate with the deaths." He flipped through a few pages of his notes. "I can't figure it out, but I guess I should look into this guys past, I mean maybe he was gay, that could account for his death." Kendrel nodded a little.

"Hey, it's your case sweety," she pat his cheek and Ryan scowled at her at the use of the nickname. "You do what you think needs to be done, and I'll be here to help if you need it, like always."

"You make it sound like we've worked dozens cases of together, not that I'm even a real detective or anything." Ryan rolled his eyes a little. Over the past two months Kendrel had thought that they were now partners in crime, or rather partners fighting crime. Their crime had consisted of tailing a cheating husband, finding a kidnapped cat, and a father wanting to find out who murdered his son. Ryan had thought that the last one would have been promising, until they found out that it was indeed the father that had killed his own son. Had Ryan been a real cop all evidence would have pointed to the father's business partner, as he had tried to set him up. Ryan was almost disappointed.

"Well, somehow you always need my help," she smirked at him. He snorted and shook his head and went back to writing his notes.

"And I think you might be a touch of delirious." He muttered under his breath, ripping off the first full sheet of paper and placing it in a folder. "I'm going to get to the bottom of this, and I'm going to figure out why an Incubus is here."

"I still think that it's a Succubus," Kendrel interjected. "I mean, why else? They're meant to attack and get pregnant so there can more little bastard demons running around."

"It just doesn't make sense, they don't kill in the same way that the Incubus does. I think you're wrong," Ryan told her. Kendrel scoffed and got up from the chair.

"When you need my help because you're about to die again, you remember to apologize to me," she pointed and stalked off. Ryan merely rolled his eyes knowing that he wouldn't have to apologize. It wasn't the first time they had had a fight. Someone had once pointed out that they acted like a married couple, to which Ryan promptly excused himself from the room and Kendrel just smiled knowingly. For the next three days she had taken to calling him pet names, and buying two fake plastic rings with fake jewels on top.

Ryan gathered the two or three books he would need and put them in his bag. He got up and thanked Horatio on his way out, promising to return the books as soon as he was done with them.

"Keep them however long you need them," Horatio one hand on Ryan's shoulder. "It's not like I have some dire urge to use them," he chuckled and Ryan just smiled and nodded, walking out to his car.

Ryan had every intention to read the books, and return to the mansion to requests Calleigh's services in making weapons. As soon as he had gotten home, though, he sat down on the couch and two pages into reading he fell on his side asleep. He slept fitfully and was plagued with a somewhat unusual dream. He was shaken awake to what felt like minutes later by Eric. He blinked and rubbed his eyes, the dream slipping from his grasp as he sat up.

"Hey, man," Eric raised an eyebrow sitting down next to him. "You okay? You were tossing a little in your sleep there."

"Yeah, I'm fine," Ryan shrugged and put on a reassuring smile. "What brings you here anyway? I would have thought that you would be at your one of your clubs tonight."

"I decided that I needed a break from them tonight, just in case anyone else died." Eric shrugged a little. "So you eaten yet? Cause I got a recipe I've been dying to try out and I don't wanna cook just for me, it's not a one person meal." Ryan blinked a little then nodded.

"No problem at all, what do you need? Do you have a recipe?" Ryan got up and headed to the kitchen with Eric hot on his heels.

"Um, well no not really." Ryan stopped and stared at him.

"How do you not have a recipe, how are you going to make it?"

"Well see, my mother is Cuban, she never used a recipe. She always just eyeballed it." Eric shrugged and went into the kitchen, by passing Ryan. "And I really don't wanna cook for just one, because I never know if it's really good, and I don't get the opportunity to cook very often. So I'd like to try it out, even thought I know it's not going to be as good as Mama's, but you know how no one can ever cook as well as your Mama." Eric looked at Ryan who had taken a seat at the table and shrugged a little.

"Actually I don't, but I know what you're talking about at least." Ryan showed Eric where the pots and pans were, and helped with all the spices and food that he would need. He watched Eric move through out the kitchen and thought that maybe had gotten something from his mother, he knew how to move from one cooking pot to another, never burning, never undercooking. He watched Eric's body moved smoothly back and forth in front of him, Eric's tanned body never slowing down and Ryan soon lost track of time.

Before Eric could notice that Ryan was staring he snapped out of his trance. He mentally cursed himself and turned around in the chair. Eric owned three clubs, he was a self advertised ladies man and he worked for the police department. He should just get over it now. He would also save himself the pain of being teased by Kendrel. Although he highly doubted that it would stop for Eric, Kendrel didn't really like him in the first place. Ryan sighed silently and got up retrieving plates and glasses for Eric as it looked like he was nearing the end of his meal.

"It smells delicious," Ryan commented when he gotten a whiff of the smoke that blew past his face as Eric took the dish from one side of the room to the other. He felt something flutter inside when Eric flashed him a dazzlingly grin.

"I aim to please." He said simply and grabbed a few bottle from the fridge. Ryan did not fail to notice that one bottle was Ryan's personal bottle of brandy. He hardly drank from it and saved it for special occasions. Eric also took out a few bottles of different juices and flavorings. Ryan decided not to question him seeing as he was the one who owned the clubs and probably knew a thing or two about drinks and mixing, although Ryan was kind of wary of alcohol in the first place. He wasn't a very good drunk, and oddly enough was very susceptible to alcohol in the first place. It's why he never finished his drink whenever he went to the club to see Kendrel perform.

As the sat down at the table Ryan almost blushed when their knees brushed against each other and Ryan backed up his chair a little. "Sorry, I don't have a very big table, I've never really had more than one person eating at this table before I came here."

"Then Kendrel came along?" Eric asked looking up and putting a piece of meat into his mouth. Ryan watched as Eric's strong jaw moved, but only for a second before realizing that Eric had asked him something.

"Actually, Puff came first." Eric gave him a questioning look and Ryan continued as he was still chewing. "I let the cat eat at the table, she actually listens to me. I know you would think that someone like me wouldn't even let an animal in here, and usually I wouldn't. But she gave me this look and I couldn't say no." Ryan stopped and blushed slightly. "Sorry, I tend to ramble when I don't know what I'm saying."

Eric chuckled took a drink from his glass. "I don't mind. I'm sure I ramble too, but I tend not to. So, I realize that I don't know, well, anything about you really. How long have you lived here?" Eric was staring into Ryan's eyes as he ate still ate.

Ryan blinked slightly and swallowed what was in his mouth. "Well, about six months now. I've moved around a lot actually. You?"

"I was born here. My father brought my mother here from Cuba, where he met her, but my father is actually Russian." Ryan raised an eyebrow and Eric chuckled. "He came from Russia on some sort of volunteer thing, also I think he just wanted to get out of the country. So he was volunteering in Cuba and he met my mother there. She was working in the fields, working for a coffee factory I think, and he just never left her alone. Wouldn't leave until she said yes to him. They were married two months later," Eric chuckled and Ryan smiled softly. "what about your parents?" Eric mentally slapped himself. It had come out before he could think, he didn't know how Ryan was going to react, his parents were probably a soft spot for him.

"Um, well it was kind of weird actually, from I had heard." Ryan took a small drink from his glass and blinked. "Oh wow, this is strong, but it's good." Eric chuckled and smiled and motioned for Ryan to continue his story. "Well, they had actually met in elementary school, and hated each other. They changed schools in middle school when my dad had moved with his parents, and by some chance they met again in college. They were living in the same dorm room, neighbors actually, and both their roommates were actually in a relationship together. So they ended up spending a lot of time together when their roommates were together, not wanting to be around for that, as you can probably understand."

Eric laughed and nodded. "Well, they stayed good friends all the way through college, the first two years at least. In the third year my dad had an accident, he was a Chemistry major and had a chemical accident in the lab. His lab partner wasn't very cautious, at all. He was only taking the class to fulfill a requirement and didn't it serious. He mixed up the wrong chemicals and then went to grab his stuff to leave. His bag hit the beaker and it spilled on my dad. He was in the campus hospital for a weak with third degree burns and was actually unconscious for two days. Well they could only find my mom's cell phone number in his phone at the time, and since it was an emergency they just called her first. As it had turned out my father didn't have a very good relationship with his parents he didn't have an emergency contacts listed.

"She waited in the hospital by his bed side until he woke up, missing all the classes she had, calling in sick for work." Ryan smiled softly and looked down at his glass for a second. He took another, slightly bigger, drink and continued. "The first thing he did when he woke up was tell her that he loved her and leaned over kissing her cheek. She was shocked but only for a second before she turned and kissed him on the lips. I guess you could say the rest was history. They moved to Boston and I was born a few years later."

"True love I guess you could call it," Eric chuckled softly. "So you're an only child?" Ryan nodded eating some more food from his plate. "Lucky. I'm the youngest of four, three sisters." Ryan groaned and smirked at him.

"I'm sure they gave you hell at home."

"Of course! But when we were at school, well when they would pick me up from school, they tore down any bully who dared to mess with us. My sister Marisol always used to yell at them in Russian. And of course when you're too young to understand any language, other than Spanish at least, you get scared at someone yelling angrily at you in some foreign language. They used to call her Killer Deloktrosky."

"Deloktrosky? What the hell?" Ryan stared at Eric as if he had just announced the he had four arms.

"It was my Papa's last name. He changed when they came to Miami and got married." Eric grinned and Ryan laughed. "So, you never told how good my cooking it."

Ryan smiled. "well if you say that you can't cook as well as your mother, then I'm afraid I would die of delight if I ever ate her cuisine." Eric grinned and picked up his glass and held it out in front of him. Ryan took the hint and grabbed his glass. They chinked their glasses together and took a large gulp. Ryan knew that he was going to regret drinking so much that night.

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A/N: More goodness on the way, things are only starting for Eric and Ryan. So here's to hoping, and read and review:D


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Sorry for the long wait, Finals and then Christmas just got hectic. Things take a little twist in this chapter though, and some more secrets will be revealed in coming chapters. Hope you like this one though, I'll try to get the next chapter up sooner this time, I know how I wanted everything to play out, I just need to get it written in a way that I like it.

Disclaimer: I do own Ryan, he's about two inches and lives with his brother Greg. I keep them in a cage, and they're surprisingly furry. Unfortunately I own hampsters, CBS and Jerry B. and the writers and stchuff own the real CSI Miami. Oh! But I do own Kendrel.

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Ryan was indeed correct. After dinner Eric and Ryan washed dishes together, and then Eric made them a couple more drinks. Before midnight Ryan had consumed four full glasses of alcohol while Eric had only had two. It was clear that Ryan was drunk and barely coherent in his actions. Eric had set him down on the couch to watch a movie and at the moment Ryan had grasped onto Eric's hand and put his head on Eric's shoulder.

Eric glanced at him and smiled slightly when he saw his eyes starting to droop shut. "Ryan, I think it's time you went to bed."

Ryan suddenly grasped onto both of Eric's hands. "It's dark, they might get me in the dark, please don't leave me alone." He muttered, words slightly slurring and sounding like a child again.

"Who might get you, Ryan?" Eric blinked a little and wrapped an arm around the younger man almost protectively.

"The monsters. They hide on the ceiling. They told me they would get me if I slept alone again." He whimpered, burying his head into Eric's shirt. Eric could tell that Ryan had crossed the line from drunk to tired, and now onto to possibly having a waking nightmare.

"I won't let you go to sleep alone. I'll stay right here, but can you stand up for me?" Eric asked softly and Ryan nodded, slowly standing up with Eric's help. Eric managed to get him into the bedroom and laid him out on the bed. He sat down next to Ryan and held onto to one of his hands. Ryan curled up on his side and held onto Eric.

"I'm sorry Daddy," Ryan murmured and Eric blinked.

"For what?" He decided to play along, who knew what would happen if he told him that he really wasn't his father. It was apparent that he probably didn't know who Eric was at the point and time.

"Sorry for running away," Eric caught a slight accent in his voice, and remembered that Ryan said he had been born in Boston. "Sorry that I couldn't help you or mom." The younger man almost whimpered.

Eric frowned and rubbed Ryan's arm lightly. "Shh, go to sleep Ryan. It's alright." Ryan nodded and quickly fell asleep against Eric. Eric sighed slightly and leaned his head back against the headboard, thinking that he was going to end up spending the night with Ryan. He had some Tylenol and water ready before he woke up.

Eric had gotten a call early in the morning before Ryan woke up and had to leave for the station. He made sure the pills and water were within reaching distance and left a note on the night stand next to glass of water, explaining to Ryan that he would be back later to check on him, or to call if there were any problems.

Ryan rubbed his head and groaned when someone pushed his side. He slowly opened his eyes and looked around, noticing that it was barely light outside. He covered his head with his pillow thinking that it was early morning.

"Ryan! Get your ass up!" He heard a distinctly female voice yelling, sending his head into a torrent of pain and thumping, like someone putting up a wall inside of his head, and using old fashioned hammer and nails.

"Shut up," he muttered weakly. He felt someone push again and this time he rolled right off of the bed. He pulled a blanket down with him and covered his head. "What?!"

"Someone else was killed, get your drunk ass up." Kandy was standing over him and he sighed.

"I'm not drunk, I'm having a hangover," he muttered as he sat up, thinking that she didn't really care.

"And here I thought that the great Ryan Wolfe would never get drunk," she scoffed throwing some new clothes at him. "Just come on, we have to get there before the police do."

Ryan pushed himself off the ground slowly and found the Tylenol and water and quickly gulped it down. "How did you even find out?"

"Eric called me. He said something along the lines of, I'd call Ryan but I think that he's still sleeping." She muttered under her breath. "You're moving at the pace of a snail, jeez, can't you hurry up a little bit?"

"Hey, I'm going as fast as I want to go at the moment. Any faster and I'll throw up, and I really don't wanna do that. Because then I'll have to stay and clean it up, and you know that," he pointed at Kendrel. He pulled on his shirt and shuffled into the bathroom and brushed his teeth quickly and ran his hand through his already shaggy hair and sighed. Stepping back out, he grabbed his wallet and keys. "Alright, let's go."

Ryan got out of the car, reluctantly having let Kendrel drive his car, and walked inside the club where Eric was waiting. He gave him a small smiled and Ryan blinked, but the smile was gone when Ryan looked again. "So another body?" Ryan questioned walking towards the back with Kendrel and Eric.

"Yeah, looks the same as last time too. Thought you might want to look at the body before the police got here, since you're looking into this case too."

Ryan nodded a little and walked past the crowd that had been gathered at the back of the club and over to the body. Once again the body was found near the bathroom, but this time closer to the back exit of the club, and the door had been propped open. Ryan quickly examined the body without touching him, and failed to notice any wounds that told of his death. Then Ryan stood up and walked over to the door. Pulling a cloth out of his pocket he pulled the door open and saw a brick placed in the door frame to jam the door. He walked outside and looked around, finding himself in a small alley. Ryan silently cursed and stayed close to the door.

Ryan turned to ask Eric or Kandy if the man was dating but all he saw was a tall woman standing in front of him. He jumped back a little and blinked, looking her over. She was about as tall as he was, long brunette hair that hung over her shoulder in curls. She wore a short black skirt and a white tank top that showed off all the right features. Ryan thought that if he would have been interested, he would have asked for her number on a regular night. But he wasn't, and tonight wasn't a regular night.

The woman advanced on him, pushing him back towards the wall. Ryan felt his heart rate speed up and he tried to keep his eyes from widening. He was pretty sure he failed. "Are you looking into who killed my boyfriend?" Her voice was gentle, but husky. Ryan blinked a little but nodded.

"How long had you been dating ma'am?" Ryan felt his natural skills take over and started to question the woman. He was somewhat disappointed that the man had a girlfriend, it didn't work with his theory. But then again he could just be going insane for even believing that his theory was given a chance to thrive. Maybe this time he would try to let science explain why these men had died.

"Only a couple weeks," she shrugged. Apparently his death was no big loss to her. She then smiled and ran her fingers up and down Ryan's arm. "How about you? Taken by some radiant charm?" Ryan just shook his head and tried to brush the woman's fingers away from him. He would feel much more comfortable if she wasn't so close to him. "Single then," she smirked and suddenly leaned in kissing him.

Ryan's eyes widened and he pushed her away. "Whoa, whoa, whoa." Ryan waved his hands in front of him and took a couple steps to the side and away from the woman. She looked at him, her expression a mixture of shock and anger. "I may be single, but I never said I was interested, and don't you think you should be more concerned on how your boyfriend died and maybe who killed him?"

The woman rolled her eyes and made a sound. She started to walk down the alley, heels clicking against the dry cement. Ryan only stared after her and slid back against the wall and quickly went back into the building.

"Where the hell were you?" Kendrel had her hands on her hips staring at him when he got back to the body.

"The victim had a girlfriend. She just tried to make a move on me, well I assume she did make a move on me." Ryan shuddered a little. Eric blinked and Kandy laughed.

"A woman, tried to make a move on you!" Kandy laughed harder and shook her head. "That's the most hilarious thing I've heard all month. Seriously, that's a good one Ryan." Eric watched Ryan for a few seconds afterward as he leaned back down over the body, obviously ignoring Kendrel's laughter. Eric had just gotten a little more insight into exactly who Ryan Wolfe was, but not much, not much at all.

Ryan left the club before the police got there, with a promise from Alexx that her report would be waiting in his mailbox in the morning. He smiled and slipped out the back door with Kendrel. It wouldn't be very good for him to be seen with Eric all the time, or just at crime scenes in general. He had to stay low key to the authorities, not that he quite knew why, but those were different demons he was trying to hide.

"I'd love to stay and watch more imaginary women hit on your Ryan, but I've got to get ready for my show." Kendrel kissed his cheek and turned the corner, walking down the side with her lime green scarf blowing in the light breeze. Ryan shook his head and kept going straight, his little sedan waiting for him.

Once at home he dropped back on the couch, still tired from the other night, and from the meds he had taken before he left the apartment. His headache had been reduced to a dull throb, but it was still something that he wanted to get rid of. Closing his eyes, he rubbed the bridge of his nose and slowly let himself drift to sleep.

He saw the woman from the alley in his dreams, but only for a second. She was once again in the alley and was walking towards him. Before Ryan could turn away he blinked, and where the woman once was, he saw Eric Delko walking towards him. Pausing in confusion, and slight shock, Ryan blinked as Eric stood in front of him, pinning his back against the wall. Ryan opened his mouth to speak but Eric place his finger on his lips, then slowly brought his finger across Ryan's bottom lip, caressing it. Ryan felt a shiver go through him and he closed his eyes. It was then that he felt Eric's lips on his own, wanting, needing, taking.

A soft moan came from Ryan's throat as he pushed his lips back against Eric's, returning the kiss with equal vigor. He felt a hand raking it way through his hair and pulling his head back slightly. He felt the lips leave his own but soon felt them on his neck. Hot, fevered breath traveled across his skin and Ryan thought that his knees would give out on him. Ryan opened his eyes slowly as Eric started to suck gently at his skin, pulling it up and caressing it with his tongue. When Ryan turned his head to look at Eric, Eric's eyes met his own. Ryan felt his voice leave him and all he wanted to do was to stand there with Eric Delko.

Ryan's eyes shot open and he groaned with pain suddenly. He was disoriented and rubbed his stomach. He found himself back in his apartment and Puff was sitting on the ground, staring at him with wide innocent eyes. It registered to him then, he was back in his apartment and Puff had just jumped in from the window, looking for her meal.

Ryan glanced outside and was almost shocked to find that the sun had risen again and it was a new day. He sighed slightly and pushed himself off of the couch. After feeding the cat he decided to take a shower and change his clothes. Today he was actually going to get some work done, he was going to find out everything he needed to know about his victims. After stepping out of the shower, wrapping a towel around his waist he grabbed his toothbrush. He wiped the condensation off of the mirror and froze. On his neck was an already purple bruise. His breath hitched when he ran his finger over it. Something definitely wasn't right here, and he was starting to get weirded out.

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A/N: More goodness on the way, So here's to hoping, and read and review:D


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Long time no see. School has been really rough, and I might have to go to a different college next year, so you can imagine all the stress that is piling up. But here's the next chapter, sorry it took so long. There no Ryan in it, but it is about Ryan, so here you go.

Disclaimer: I do own Ryan, he's about two inches and lives with his brother Greg. I keep them in a cage, and they're surprisingly furry. Unfortunately I own hampsters, CBS and Jerry B. and the writers and stchuff own the real CSI Miami. Oh! But I do own Kendrel, and the changes that I've made to any mythology or legends, but not the creatures themselves.

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Kandy sat in one of the corner booths looking over the file that she had gotten from Ryan's apartment. She knew that the case itself wasn't normal, and she wasn't quite sure how Ryan had gotten a hold of the documents, but it was obvious that he had no idea what had happened. Kandy wanted to figure it out, if not for herself, then for Ryan.

The weight in the booth shifted and Kandy quickly closed the folder and looked up. She blinked when she saw Eric looking at her. "What do you want?"

"I own this club, I can do what I want. What was that?" He nodded at the folder still in her hands.

"Nothing, just some papers." Kandy replied smoothly.

Eric reached forwards and snatched one of the papers that was sticking out from the top of the folder. She tried to snatch it back but Eric moved back, quickly. "You got this from Ryan's apartment. Does he know that you have this?" Kandy didn't respond and Eric narrowed his eyes a little. "He doesn't, because he probably wouldn't have let you take it."

"And what do you know about any of this." She leaned over and snatched it back, careful not to rip the paper. "I know that he didn't show it to you, much less talk about it."

"How do you know? He's talked about his parents to me." Eric countered back, leaning against the table to look at her.

"I don't believe you. That's highly personal, he wouldn't just spill something like that." Kandy accused. "I think you're just making shit up."

Eric snorted and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I don't doubt that you would think that. Actually I went over and cooked some dinner and we talked. I talked about how my parents met, and he talked about his." Kandy narrowed her eyes at him. "I'm not lying, he willingly told me about them."

"Why were you over there in the first place?" Kandy demanded, not interested, but keeping up her act in front of Eric. He couldn't know that she was actually hoping that he had taken an interest in Ryan.

Eric shrugged. "I needed a break, I didn't wanna find another dead body at any of my clubs. So I thought that maybe he could use some help if he wanted it, and I wanted to test out a new recipe. Is it a crime to go over to a friends house now?"

"Friend? I thought you just considered him a colleague." Kandy raised an eyebrow and leaned back crossing her arms over her chest to look at him.

"Of course I consider him a friend. But you wouldn't know anything about that, you're only interested in Ryan." Eric shot back. Kandy laughed at that.

"I hope you don't mean romantically, because that would just be hilarious." She brushed off his next comment with the flick of her wrist, then leaned forward once again. "Pay him."

"Excuse me?" Eric also leaned forward on the table between them. "What exactly do you mean?"

"Pay, Ryan. He's investigating these murders for you, trying to clear you, and for nothing." Kandy gave him a hard stare that she hoped would break him down. "You have the money to spare, and it's not exactly like he's set for life. He's doing all this work with expecting a dime in return."

"How do you know I just wasn't going to pay in the end? You don't know me well enough to know what I'm thinking." Eric rolled his eyes at her. He would never figure out how Ryan managed to put up with this woman, he couldn't stand being around her sometimes.

"You're right I don't, and I thank the Gods everyday that I don't know you that well. But I'm pretty sure that, no, you wouldn't pay Ryan for doing all this, and would take it as a volunteer case." Kandy spat back at him. There was no way in hell she was going to let this man take advantage of Ryan, in any way. "Now, why don't you just leave and crawl back to your cave and let the big guns take care of everything for you."

Eric's upper lip pulled back in a snarl. "I think you should step out of the game before you get hurt. This was meant for the men to play." Kendrel shot him a glare and barely resisted clocking him one. Eric reached over and snatched the folder from the table quickly and stood up. Kandy quickly followed him.

"Where the hell do you think you're going with that? It's not yours." She tried to keep up next to him but he went through the employee's only door and into the narrow hall, forcing Kandy to walk behind him.

"That's hypocritical of you to say. It's not yours either." He grabbed a key and unlocked the unlabeled door at the end of the hallway. "I was going to make a copy of all the papers here, keep the originals, I don't care." He sat down at the desk that housed a computer monitor and a printer that doubled a scanner. He quickly scanned each page onto the computer then tossed the folder across the desk to Kandy, but didn't get up from his chair.

"And what exactly do you plan on doing with those now?" Kandy grabbed the folder and crossed her arms looking at him.

"I thought it was obvious, I'm going to help him." He leaned back in the chair like it was the natural thing to do. Kandy snorted and walked out of the office. Eric's expression changed from defiance towards the woman that had been in his office to concerned, concerning this cold case.

Quickly typing in Kendra and Trent Wolfe the first articles he had been able to pull up were those of their deaths that had been posted in the local newspaper. It seemed that they had had no living relatives, Trent's parents dying two years after Ryan was born, and Kendra's dying when she was sixteen, exactly twelve years apart he noticed from the dates. They both attended Boston University, like Ryan had told him. Trent had studied and gained his Master's degree in chemistry, Kendra had studied to gain her Master's degree in Genetics.

'_Guess they were meant to be_,' Eric thought to himself. Eric found the announcement of their marriage in a Boston newspaper, an article of the birth of their first son, but there was no name. It seemed it had been an anonymous placement, maybe something that the hospital had put in. Eric frowned and saved all the information, saving it to read through later. He then typed in Ryan's name.

And got nothing.

Eric blinked. He pulled up access to the police department files, and once again received nothing. '_Not possible, I'll have to try the government database.'_ Eric never really liked using the government search but this wasn't usually a problem he came up with. Several minutes later his search came up empty, again. This didn't add up, but he knew that this database didn't make mistakes. Still he ran the search through a second time, at the same time running two other separate searches for Ryan's parents.

_No Record of Ryan Wolfe_

_1 Match to Trent Mason Wolfe_

_1 Match to Kendra Antoinette Wolfe_

He quickly opened Kendra's file and read through it. She had a son, but was unnamed. Eric rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed. Something wasn't right and it was aggravating him that he didn't know what.

Was Ryan in some kind of trouble? Was he avoiding someone? Was he in trouble with the Government? Was that why he kept moving from state to state, city to city? Maybe Kendrel would have more luck, and they would eventually have to share what they found. They very well couldn't tell Ryan about what they had found.

"Are you sure that these are his biological parents?" Calleigh and Horatio sat on one end of library table while Kendrel sat on the other. Each had a file; Calleigh had Kendra Antoinette Wolfe, Horatio had the files from Ryan's apartment, and Kendrel had Trent Mason Wolfe.

"Pretty sure," Kendrel muttered flipped through the papers. Somehow Horatio had gotten the files faxed over from someone in the National Records Department in D.C.. "Eric said that he talked about his parents and he said that they were his real parents, no adoption or anything.

"It would have been recorded if they had adopted a child," Horatio pointed out.

"But there isn't any record of them having a son, adopted or otherwise," Calleigh sighed and put the files down. "Something's missing."

"Yeah, anything on Ryan," Kendrel also dropped her papers. "What could he be wanting to hide? Maybe it's something that the government did. Some big conspiracy that we don't know about."

Horatio shook his head. "I doubt it, his records would have been there, tampered with or not."

Kendrel rubbed her head and stared at the table for a moment. "Something's wrong with all of this. How can a person just disappear from any records?"

"Unless the files were stolen." Kendrel looked up at Calleigh. "I've heard of it happening before. It's very rare and extremely hard to do, but it's happened."

"But that still leaves us with who would want to steal his files."


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I own nothing, CBS and Jerry B. and the writers and stchuff own the real CSI Miami.

A/N: Hey hey! Look Chapter 6!! Wooo! Give it less than a week for chapter 7, then chapter 8 to follow. Almost to the end by that point.

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Ryan tossed and turned in his bed, kicking the sheets off of his body. His breath had quickened and he was almost panting. Eric had once again found him in the alley outside of the bar, and this time Ryan quickly returned the fevered kisses. He closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around Eric's neck while Eric's tongue explored his mouth, brushing the roof of his mouth, the sides, and the underside of Ryan's own tongue. He let out a moan as Eric pressed against Ryan, gasping a little when he felt an answering hardness from Eric rub against his own through the fabric of his jeans.

Eric's hands worked separately from his mouth, raking their way through Ryan's hair, and under his shirt across his chest. Ryan felt them moving as he was lifted from the wall and then he found himself falling down onto something soft with Eric still on top of him. Opening his eyes slightly when he pulled away to breathe, Ryan noticed that they had somehow moved to a bedroom, his bedroom in fact, and were now lying on top of his bed. Ryan took a deep breath seconds before Eric's lips were once again pressed against his own, Eric's tongue assaulting his mouth.

Ryan felt Eric's hand move across his chest then stop and press down slightly. Ryan's eyebrows wrinkled together in discomfort as he felt a slight pain rise in his chest. He tried to turn his head away from Eric to breathe but he wouldn't relent from the kiss. Ryan started to frantically shake his head back and forth but couldn't draw a breath.

Ryan's eyes shot open to take in his sun-bathed bedroom, sans Eric. He suddenly clutched at his chest and pulled in a ragged and painful breath. All of his limbs felt heavy and he couldn't move from the bed, as if some force was pushing down on him. He jerked a little and was slowly able to move his arms, then slowly his legs were able to move. He pushed himself into a sitting position and winced when he stood up. Ryan knew that none of this was normal, but didn't have an explanation for any of it. He knew it wasn't a vampire this time, he distinctly knew what that feeling was like, and he knew that he clearly did not enjoy what he just experienced.

Glancing at the clock as he passed on his way to the bathroom, he groaned to himself. He had slept through half of the day already, the digital numbers displaying 1:15. Ryan was going to talk to some friends of the victim today, to see if he could find any information that would support his incubus theory. As he stripped off his clothes and stepped into the shower, he mentally went over what he knew.

Both victims seemed physically fine on the outside, but inside the organs were blacked, from old age and something else. Alexx had admitted to never seeing anything like it, but could confirm that the organs had appeared to be overworked. The slight differences between a succubus and an incubus were enough for Ryan to pin the blame on them. A succubus didn't care what happened to the male, they were only looking for the sperm to create more of the demons. But an incubus, it took more care into its victims, stringing them along, slowly taking away their life essence.

As Ryan dried his hair with his towel, his mind kept slipping back to think about Eric. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get the dreams out of his head. He also couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong with the dreams from his mind. He closed his eyes and took a breath before leaving to get dressed. He had to focus on this case, even if he wasn't getting paid.

Several hours later, Ryan walked out a smoky bar and coughed when he breathed in fresh air. He was thankful he wasn't a smoker, but couldn't help thinking that maybe he had permanently damaged his lungs by spending as long as he did in there.

He ran his hand through his hair, hoping to dissipate some of the smoke smell from the strands and started walking down the sidewalk. A voice behind him made him pause and he turned around to see Eric jogging up to him. His heart gave a little jump in his chest but he tried to hide it from the approaching Cuban-Russian.

"Hey, what's up? Oh man," Eric took a step back, his face scrunching up a little. "You smell… like really bad smoke, what's up? I thought you weren't a bar man."

"I said I wasn't a club man, but I'm definitely not a bar man." Ryan took off his jacket and waved it in the air a little before folding it over his arm. "I was talking to some friends of the guys who died. This was the only place they would meet me." He made a face in distaste and they both started to walk again.

"Sorry, man," Ryan could hear the chuckle waiting to escape in Eric's voice and rolled his eyes slightly. "So making any headway into this case anyway?"

Ryan sighed and shook his head. "Well, there was one thing. Both sets of friends had said that they were dating this girl. Said her name was Veronica, and they had gone to club with her the night they died. I mean it blows my theory of them being gay, but it at least points me somewhere."

Eric nodded a little, seeming to think about something and Ryan tilted his head a little to look at him. "You okay, man?"

"Hm? Yeah, I'm fine. I was just thinking." Eric stuck his hands into his pockets. "No one's paying you for this, are they?" Ryan shook his head. "Well, I mean, I've got three clubs going, I can pay you for all the work you're putting into this. All the foot work and labor and what not."

Ryan blinked and looked at Eric. "You're serious?" Eric nodded his head up and down, and his brown eyes met Ryan's hazel-speckled green ones. "I can't take your money, Eric. I just wanna see your name cleared up." His voice had quieted at his last sentence but Eric still heard it.

"I know, and I really appreciate it, I mean, I don't think you know how much. But I can't willingly let you keep going knowing that you're doing this basically gratis." Eric argued, hands still stuffed in his pockets. He knew that he wasn't just offering this because Kendrel had brought it up, Eric knew that inside he really appreciated Ryan for doing this, more so than as just a friend.

"Listen, just think of it as a friends thing. You'll just owe me later on, right?"

Ryan smirked slightly at Eric and Eric felt himself chuckle and shake his head. "Hey, hang on a minute." Eric stopped them in front of a shop. "Talking about favors, I gotta run in and collect something. I'll be right back alright?"

Ryan looked up and saw they had stopped in front of a sandwich shop. "I can just come in with you." Ryan offered.

"No, no, I want it to be a surprise." Eric smirked and walked inside, leaving Ryan to stare at where he had just been standing. He blinked then shook his head and looked around the street. There weren't many people out today, most were still at work, and it was also the middle of the week, not a very busy time.

There was a crash of trash cans behind him on the side of the shop; he thought he heard a woman's voice. He silently jogged into the alley, staying close to the wall and looked around. He didn't see anything, but saw the offending trash cans. One had fallen and knocked against the other, though both were empty. Ryan frowned and turned back around and his breath caught in his throat when he almost ran into a body. Looking closer, he noticed it was the same woman from the club, Veronica, the supposed girlfriend.

"I don't know why you still bother trying to figure things out." Her voice was cold as ice and she started to advance on him, forcing him to walk backwards until he hit the wall. "They died, leave it alone," she threatened.

"I won't." Ryan had found his voice and hoped that it sounded as confident as he wanted it to. "You had something to do with the deaths, didn't you? You knew both of them, were supposedly dating both of them at the same time. Did they find out about each other?"

The woman gave a stark laugh that made Ryan's blood run cold. Her eyes flashed at him as she slammed her hand palm first next to his head against the wall. "You don't know what you've gotten yourself into. It's too late to turn back now, but I can tell you one thing." She leaned in close, their lips almost touching and he could feel that even her breath was cold. "You won't be the next dead body they find, no, I've already chosen that one."

Ryan froze and he suddenly found it harder to breath. She laughed and slid her hand over his shirt and over his heart. He let out a groan of pain and she smirked. "You will be the next one I take though. We'll see each other again, don't you worry, dear boy." She took her hand away and turned walking out of the alley.

The pain in Ryan's chest slowly disappeared and he took a deep breath. He grabbed his coat from the ground, unaware that it had even fallen until he had almost stepped on it. Gathering his bearings, he walked back out of the alley and noticed that Eric hadn't returned. Looking up and down the street, he didn't see Veronica anywhere either. He wasn't sure if he should take her threat seriously, there were still too many things that were confusing about this case.

The little bell on the shop door rang as Eric walked out with two sandwiches in his hands. "Surprise," Eric smiled and held out one of the wrapped sandwiches. "I wasn't sure what you liked so I got you roast beef."

Ryan blinked and took the wrapped sandwich and smiled. "Thanks, it's actually my favorite."

Eric couldn't help the matching smiled that had slid onto his face. "Great! Come on, I'll walk you back to your apartment before I head back to the police station." Ryan smiled and nodded, following him down the street.

Back at his apartment Ryan hadn't realized how hungry he was until he had eaten the sandwich from Eric. He also hadn't realized how tired he was until he sat down on his couch. Puff jumped up as Ryan stretched his legs out, wanting attention. He smiled slightly and scratched behind her ears as he felt his eyes slowly start to shut.

He wasn't asleep for long before his cell phone started to ring. Puff was asleep in the corner of the couch, on her favorite blanket, and the sun had set only an hour ago. As he picked up, he realized this was a call he should have known was coming.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I own nothing, CBS and Jerry B. and the writers and stchuff own the real CSI Miami.

A/N: Here's Chapter7! Two more chapters to go. Okay, so this chapter contains smut, :). If you don't like that I will mark off any graphic words with a line of these! /\\/ And then another line when the graphic stuff is over. The only important thing you need to know is that they had sex. So here we go!

--

Ryan walked into his apartment and dropped his coat over the chair in the living room. Walking into the kitchen, he sighed as he looked around. Ryan set his dirty dishes from earlier in the day in the sink, for once too tired to clean them. His OCD screamed, but his tired and stressed mind pushed those thoughts to the back of his head.

Another body had turned up only hours ago, killed in the same way as the other two men. Ryan couldn't figure out why it was only men. If he were to go by the description he had gotten about the Incubus, it was supposed to be women who were the victims. He had toyed with the idea of there being a Succubus, but the symptoms and deaths of the men just didn't match. Alexx had once again promised to deliver the autopsy results to him the next day.

And if this new threat wasn't enough, he just couldn't get his mind off of Eric. Something had seemed to change between them but Eric would never admit it. He couldn't deny what he felt for Eric either, he had recently been having dreams about him; dreams that left him feeling tired and drained, and strangely feeling alone, when he woke up. He remembered the first dream from a week ago, and the hickey that had turned up the next morning. After that the dreams only got worse, or better depending on when you asked Ryan.

Ryan rubbed his head, trying to shake the thoughts floating around. For once, he was going to get a full night's sleep, no matter what. Kendrel had to work tonight and promised that she wouldn't come over. She was beginning to seem a little distant now that he thought about it too. No, he had to stop. Shuffling towards his bedroom, he was prepared to drop on the bed, close his eyes and not wake up until the sun hit his eyes again. A knock on his front door stopped him, though. He let out a long sigh and walked to the door, hoping that it wasn't important and that it wouldn't take long.

He opened the door and blinked, eyes widening slightly; he wasn't expecting to see this. Eric Delko stood in his doorway, in tight jeans and a button-down shirt that he had conveniently forgotten to button. He hadn't expected to see Eric after the third body had shown up at his third club, and in different clothes, but his mind didn't pick up on that fact, yet. Ryan couldn't help it as his eyes roamed over Eric's tanned and defined chest, his outstretched arm that was resting on his door frame, and Eric's eyes that were looking directly into his.

"Eric," Ryan's voice betrayed him as it came out in almost a whisper. "What are you doing here?"

Eric didn't say anything and pushed Ryan inside, kicking the door shut. He pushed the surprised man against the wall and instantly attacked Ryan's mouth with his own. Ryan felt himself gasp and his eyes widen even further. Ryan put his hands on Eric's shoulders to push him back, but Eric's hands came up; one grasping one of Ryan's hands, the other wrapping around his neck as he deepened the passionate kiss. Ryan felt lost inside his kiss, felt his eyes droop and his free arm wind itself around Eric's neck, pulling him closer until their bodies were flush against each other, chest to chest.

Ryan pulled away as his body screamed for air. He was breathing deeply, looking into Eric's deep brown eyes. "Eric," he heard himself whisper again, but it sounded like his voice was fifteen feet away and echoing in his ears.

Eric put a finger on Ryan's lips and smiled at him. "Not now," his voice and deep and husky with desire, something that Ryan craved, something he dreamed about at night. Ryan could only nod as Eric took his hands and lamely followed him into his bedroom. Ryan didn't notice Puff stand up on the couch and start to hiss, bounding towards Eric as he shut the door, stopping the cat in its path to protect her master. He locked the door and once again engaged Ryan's lips in a deep, soul-stealing kiss. He lowered Ryan down onto the bed on his back, hand running up Ryan's chest under his shirt.

Ryan let out a low moan into the kiss, arching his back slightly at the touch of Eric's hand. Ryan opened his eyes and felt like he was watching his body from the outside. He felt disoriented and couldn't exactly control what his body did. Ryan's hands slowly removed Eric's shirt and roamed across Eric's soft skin. Eric smiled, pulling away from the kiss to remove Ryan's own shirt from his body. Ryan's breathing had slowed down as he watched Eric slowly lower himself over Ryan. He felt his lips slowly mark their way across his chest; placing soft, chaste kisses over his skin. Ryan shivered and threw his head back, mouth opened slightly, his hand running through Eric's hair and across his back. He felt Eric's hot breath slowly seep into his skin and was faintly aware of the low moan that escaped from his lips. Eric brought himself back up and smirked at Ryan.

When Eric kissed him again, he laid down on top of Ryan. Ryan almost worried, knowing that Eric would feel just how aroused and turned on Ryan had become, but was surprised when he felt Eric's harness was mimicking his own.

"Eric," his voice pleaded, seemingly the only word that he knew how to say at the moment. In that one word Eric knew what Ryan wanted.

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Ryan felt himself lifted up and moved onto the bed fully only to be covered by Eric's body seconds later. He let out a breath as Eric kissed at his neck, hand moving to rub his thigh. Ryan pushed his hand through Eric's hair, letting out a groan as he felt Eric's lips on his neck. Ryan's hand suddenly gripped Eric's hair and pulled his head up and placed his own lips on Eric's, nipping and tugging at his lower lip in a frenzied fever. He felt Eric smirk then felt his hand unbutton Ryan's jeans. Ryan gasped and pulled away slightly from Eric's mouth when Eric unzipped his jeans and lifted his ass to push them off, sliding his boxers with them.

Ryan groaned and arched his back against Eric when he felt his hand brush against his hardened cock. Eric pulled away for a second and Ryan opened his eyes but saw that he was only doing Ryan's job of removing his own pants and boxers. Eric locked eyes with Ryan and smirked again. He leaned forward, his hand caressing Ryan's jaw and cheek and kissed him slowly and gently.

Ryan felt his hips buck up against Eric and felt the other man chuckle against him in his chest. He groaned when Eric pushed down on Ryan's hips, his nails digging into Ryan's skin. Ryan felt Eric's knee rubbing between his legs and Eric moved one of his hands to rub lightly on the inside of his upper thigh. Ryan knew what he was doing, and Ryan didn't think that he could handle the teasing. Eric chuckled and smirked some more when he saw Ryan's hardened erection and Ryan looked down and was met with a mirroring sight of Eric's own hardened cock.

"Eric, please," Ryan pleaded. His voice was hoarse and had risen a couple octaves. His breathing increased and he leaned his head up to suck on Eric's neck. Eric growled in his throat and suddenly grasped Ryan's cock in his hand and Ryan let out a moan. He never wondered if Eric had condoms with him, or if Eric brought lube, because lord knew that Ryan had never bought the stuff before.

This time he was enjoying it. He had harbored emotions for this man over the past four months and now they were all coming out. Eric ran his hand softly against Ryan's cheek and whispered tenderly in his ear to open his eyes. Ryan complied and Eric smiled at him, but it wasn't the same smile that he had seen day in and day out. But this didn't occur to Ryan at the time, nothing really went through Ryan's head as Eric continued to make love to him.

Eric pushed Ryan's hips up, hand still grasping Ryan's cock, pumping slowly, almost painfully for Ryan. Ryan cried out loudly and painfully when he felt Eric push inside of him, his hand shot up and gripped the edge of his headboard, knuckles white from the intense grip and pain that he felt. He let out a visible shiver and closed his eyes. Eric leaned back over his head and kissed him slowly and Ryan felt his eyes open back up. Eric was staring into his eyes as he made love to him, as he slowly rocked back and forth against Ryan's hips, pushing ever further into the younger man with each forceful push. Ryan's mouth was opened in pain and could only cry out and whimper softly with each thrust that Eric pushed into him. Ryan's eyes suddenly saw white when Eric hit his prostate, he cried out again and gripped onto Eric's shoulder tightly. Ryan felt something warm against his stomach and looked as Eric was looking quite pleased as he was now holding Ryan's limp and spent cock in his hands, their stomachs both covered with Ryan's cum.

Ryan was breathing harshly through his mouth now, pain wracking his body. And Ryan could never shake the feeling that he still felt cold, and he couldn't understand why. Eric started to rock harder, thrusting deeper and steadily faster into Ryan. Minutes later as Ryan cried out from the feeling of Eric coming inside of Ryan, hitting his prostate as he did so. Ryan was left dazed, his eyes rolling up slightly and lids closing. He felt Eric pull out, and heard a distinctly female laugh, before he fell asleep on the confines of his bed.

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Ryan woke up to find Kendrel already in the kitchen and making breakfast for both of them. He slowly, and painfully, walked out and nodded a greeting to her, hiding the hurt he felt to not see Eric. He knew that Eric had a reputation to keep, but Ryan thought that even a note saying that he had left would have been nice, and would have spared his feelings.

Kendrel watched him as she finished some eggs and toast, trying to decided if she wanted to ask why he was limping. She put them on a plate and placed one in front of Ryan and the other in front of herself before taking a seat. "I added cheese, just how you like it." Ryan nodded a little and sipped the coffee that he had poured. Kendrel frowned and took the mug away from him. "You don't like coffee, I do. What's wrong with you?" Kendrel accused.

Before Ryan could retaliate there was a knock at the door. Kendrel pushed Ryan back down and went to answer the door herself. Ryan picked up his fork and started to poke at the scrambled eggs in front of him. He heard two voices by the door, and was able to discern who the second voice belonged to as soon as the bodies walked into the kitchen. Ryan narrowed his eyes into a glare when Eric walked in behind Kendrel.

"I swear, the police are insufferable. And I work for them!" Eric exclaimed. He looked at Ryan and blinked. "Hey, you look like you didn't get much sleep last night. You feeling okay?"

"I would think that you would know the answer to that." Ryan shot back, venom lacing his words. Eric recoiled as if Ryan had just slapped him.

"Whoa, what did I do wrong?"

"What the fuck is your problem, Delko?!" Ryan exclaimed, standing up quickly. Maybe too quickly. He wavered on his feet and his vision swam but he brushed off any help from the two people in his kitchen. "You just act like nothing ever happened?!"

"Ryan, what the hell is going on?" This time Kendrel stepped forward, almost surprised by the fact that she was defending Eric Delko.

"He comes over last night, and just thinks he can do whatever the hell he wants!" Ryan yelled, his voice hiding another emotion. "Thinks he can just play me like a harp! Well, you're wrong! Just another good fuck, wasn't I?!"

Eric's eyes widened and Kendrel turned on her heel to stare at him. "What the hell is he talking about, Delko?" Her voice was low with anger.

"I don't know! I wasn't here last night, I was talking to police about the dead body found at my club!" Eric didn't know what else to say. He looked at Ryan and saw the different thoughts and emotions traveling across his face and through his eyes. Suddenly Ryan frowned.

"You weren't here last night? But," Ryan raised his arm and saw the scar where Eric had scratched him last night was healing over. It definitely hasn't been a dream, and he was dead positive that it had been Eric he had slept with last night. "I saw you, you were here." His words were starting to slur together and he felt his eyelids become heavy. He saw Kendrel and Eric give him a concerned look before his body crumpled to the floor, blacking out.

"Ryan!" Both called out his name but Kendrel had made to him first. She checked his head quickly to make sure that he hadn't caught it on anything when he fell. She then felt his head but couldn't detect a fever.

"What the hell just happened?" Eric quickly knelt down next to her. Kendrel quickly turned an icy stare on him.

"You're suddenly so concerned about him? I don't believe it for a minute, Delko." Kendrel spat at him, putting Ryan's head in her lap. "You've only ever been interested in how your name looks in all this, you don't even see how he's trying to help you, and for what? Nothing, he gets nothing out of this." She was fiercely protective of her younger friend, tearing apart anyone who hurt him. He had already been hurt enough in the past, and he didn't need Eric Delko dealing out anymore damage.

"Hey, you better just back the hell up." Eric growled, voice low with anger now. "I offered to pay him, he declined it. If you think that I'm not grateful for his help then you had better take your head out of your ass pretty damn quick."

"How dare you talk to me like that." Kendrel said quietly, angered seeped into every word. "If Ryan were helping me the way he were helping you, I'd have more than just my career on my mind. I'd be trying to think of every fucking way I could make it up to him, ten fold. You have no idea what he's been through, so maybe a little fucking respect would be nice."

"Don't you dare accuse me of not knowing anything about him, don't accuse me of only thinking of myself, cause you are dead wrong."

"What the hell do you know? You don't care about him, that much is obvious." Kendrel rolled her eyes and looked back at Ryan, sweeping his bangs off of his face. His breathing had evened out and he seemed to be asleep at the time. She stood up and hooked her arms under his and started to lift him up. Eric stepped in and lifted him up in his arms carrying him to the bedroom without a word. Kendrel stared after him then set her eyes in a glare and followed him.

"I'm pretty sure if he were awake he wouldn't want you to touch him." She fired at him when he laid him down gently on the bed.

"Well he's not awake is he? And I don't rightly care." Eric put one of his pillows under Ryan's head and looked around the room. He walked over and picked up an unbuttoned shirt on the ground and frowned. "This is my shirt," he said slowly.

"So you were here last night! He does have every right to be pissed at you!" Kendrel quickly pounced on the opening.

"No, I already said that I was talking to police last night, I was out until four in the morning, I didn't have time to come here then leave before you got here." Eric checked the bottom edges of the shirt. He found the familiar stain where he had accidentally bleached it. "I haven't been able to find this shirt for a week."


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I own nothing, CBS and Jerry B. and the writers and stchuff own the real CSI Miami.

A/N: Here's Chapter 8!! One more chapter after this! And now! The continuing story!!

--

When Ryan woke up, he felt drained and still tired, like he could sleep for days on end. But the noise he heard outside his door had woken him from his deep slumber. Squinting his eyes in concentration, he could make out two voices; Eric and Kendrel. He blinked when he thought he heard the front door open and then a third voice joined the others. His bedroom door opened slightly and he was greeted by the sight of Alexx Woods with her bag.

"Baby? How are you feeling?" She asked gently as she sat down on the edge of the bed next to him.

Before he could answer, he let out a harsh cough and closed his eyes, wincing in pain as he grabbed at his chest. Ryan wheezed in a breath and Alexx quickly grabbed his other hand, rubbing the back of it soothingly. He closed his eyes and felt Alexx move her hands again and then felt the cool metal of her stethoscope against his chest. He shivered slightly and felt Alexx gently move his hand from his chest.

"Ryan? Have you been sick recently?" Ryan opened his eyes and shook his head and saw Alexx frown slightly.

"What's wrong Alexx?" Ryan asked quietly, pushing himself into a sitting position slowly.

"Well, I would advise you go to a hospital, but I have a feeling that you're going to be stubborn and refuse." Ryan gave her a look that told her she had hit the nail on the head. "Your breathing is raspy, and your heart seems to be having a hard time pumping blood, so it's working overtime."

"Overworked? How? I haven't done anything over-exerting, and I'm not sick." Ryan coughed again, as if his body was trying to prove his words wrong. "I don't understand Alexx."

Alexx pulled out a few more instruments from his bag and quickly took his temperature, then his blood pressure, even resorting to taking his blood sugar. "Nothing indicates that you're sick, baby, just that, well..." She trailed off a little and Ryan looked at her expectantly.

"That what Alexx? Am I dying or something?"

"Well, in a way yes." Ryan's eyes widened slightly. "It's like you're getting older, too old. I can't explain it."

Ryan stared at her for a second, then his eyes widened. "I can. That body, did you do the autopsy?" Alexx nodded and Ryan continued before she could talk. "He was the same as the other two wasn't he?"

"Yeah, but how did you know?" She gave him a look that said she knew he was keeping something from him.

"It was a gut instinct. I know what's killing them though, or rather who is." He pushed the blankets back and winced a little at the pain in his chest. Alexx moved forward, rubbing his back.

"You shouldn't be moving, baby boy. I don't want you ending up on my table next." Alexx warned him.

"If I don't do something now then I will be," he said cryptically. Alexx sighed and helped him up. He refused to let her help him get dressed and shooed her out of the room closing the door. He could hear the inquiring voices of Eric and Kendrel asking Alexx what was wrong.

Several minutes later Ryan walked out of his room and looked at the three people in his living room, looking at him; Alexx separating Eric and Kendrel.

"Ryan, are you okay? Because, I swear if this jackass hurt you-" Kendrel was cut off by a growl from Eric.

"I told you, I wasn't here last night, But you're just-" This time he was cut off by Alexx, who had smacked both his and Kendrel's arm.

"Let the boy talk instead of jumping to conclusions." Her voice was low, like she was talking to her children.

"Thanks, Alexx." Ryan was reminded of what had happened last night though, and he tried to keep the hurt out of his voice as he realized that it wasn't really Eric who had appeared last night. "I know who's killing these men."

"It's a succubus, isn't it." Kendrel stated, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "I was right."

Ryan shook his head and walked over, grabbing his jacket and slipping on a pair of shoes. "No, it isn't. It's the girlfriend, Veronica."

"Who?" All three asked.

"Just come on, I'm gonna need some weapons."

Alexx sighed and looked at Ryan, opening her mouth to protest. She saw the look of determination in Ryan's eyes and just shook her head. "You three can do this on your own, I don't do leg work," Alexx grabbed her bag. "I have a job to do anyway." She pat Ryan's cheek and smiled at him. "Try not to get hurt, or I will have to hunt you down, baby. Don't you dare end up on my table."

Ryan smiled at her. "I won't, thanks, Alexx." Alexx smiled back at him and left the three alone. Ryan turned to look at them. "Are you two done fighting now so we can go kill an Incubus?"

"But I thought you said it was the girlfriend." Eric said, confusion crossing his face. Kendrel only rolled her eyes but didn't say anything.

"It is, just come on, I can't explain it now, but I know I'm right." He opened the door and left, leaving the other two to catch up.

It didn't take long for the trio to drive to Horatio's mansion, and to find both he and Calleigh in Calliegh's workshop.

"Now, there are only two reasons as to why you would be in my lab," Calleigh said, her voice seeming to always carry a bright tone to it. "That would to bring me sweets, and I don't see any in those hands of yours," she smirked at Ryan. Ryan responded with a sheepish smile. "The other reason would be that you need a weapon."

"We haven't known each other long, and already you can read me like a book," Ryan grinned at her.

"Flattery might get you somewhere with me, Wolfe." She smirked. "Alright, what are you trying to kill this time?"

"An incubus." Calleigh raised an eyebrow but shrugged and walked over to a taller cabinet and opened the doors. Ryan could see a couple of long axes and double headed axes hanging from one door, and some long swords, broadswords, and daggers, hanging from the other door. Calleigh reached inside and pulled out a sheathed sword then closed the cabinet.

Ryan reached out for it but she slapped his hand down and blinked. She pushed him to face the other way then strapped the sword and its scabbard to his back around his chest. He blinked when she pulled something over his head. Reaching his hand up he felt soft cloth under his hands, and felt it fall down right below his shoulders. When he turned around, Calleigh grinned and held up a mirror.

Ryan face twisted into one of slight disgust. "I look like that guy from that video game, Link, or whatever his name is." Calliegh handed him the mirror as she pulled out some bobby pins, and tried to pin the green cloth hat to his hair. He quickly batted her hands away and tore the hat off of his head.

"If you wanna be able to get away with that sword on your back, then you need to wear this hat," Calleigh argued, sticking the hat right back on his head. "The police will stop you and probably take you into custody." Ryan's eye twitched but this time he grudgingly let her pin the hat to his head.

"What makes you think they won't stop me and take me into custody if I'm wearing this hat?" His OCD demanded that he straighten the folds in the fabric.

"Because, have you noticed the abundance of really weird looking teenagers and adults walking around lately?" Calleigh placed her hands on her hips. Ryan just shrugged. "Well, they are what we call 'Cosplayers'. They're able to dress up and get away with walking around with practically anything." She grinned triumphantly.

"I won't forget this you know," he grumbled, but Calleigh just smiled and patted his cheek, then looked at Eric and Kendrel. "You two wanna dress up too? I'm pretty I could drag up some fairy wings, and a red hat."

Eric and Kendrel quickly shook their heads but Ryan answered for them. "I think they would. It would look awfully suspicious if I was walking around alone like this. It would just make me look crazy." Calleigh grinned and leaned over to dig through one of her drawers. Eric and Kendrel both shot Ryan a glare.

"Now, who wants to be Navi?" Both Eric and Kendrel pointed at each other at the same time, causing Calleigh to smile even wider.

Horatio wrapped an arm around Calleigh's waist as they watched the trio walk away, Ryan and Kendrel both clad in cloth hats, and Eric slumping away with a set of glittery wings attached to his back. "Good job."

"I thought so," she smirked.

Later Ryan glanced down the alley near the sandwich shop from before and sighed when he didn't see Veronica.

"Where exactly were you planning on finding her, Ryan?" Kendrel leaned against the wall and looked at him.

"I'm not quite sure. Usually she finds me," Ryan replied sheepishly.

"Well, that really doesn't help us." Eric sighed a little. "Why don't we head back to your place and figure things out from there?"

Ryan nodded reluctantly and they turned around. A few blocks later Ryan blinked and stopped looking around. He couldn't explain it but he felt something, or someone watching him. Without a word to his companions, he turned down another street and kept walking. He found himself heading back towards Eric's favorite and first club. No one was there and he looked around.

"How are you feeling, dear boy?" Ryan turned sharply when he heard her voice behind him. She walked forward and smirked, then started to circle him slowly. "Did you have an exciting night?"

Ryan felt a growl starting to build but kept himself from launching at her. "I know what you are, and that you're killing those men." She snorted with laughter then came up behind him, folding her fingers over his shoulders.

He felt the hands moving then his breath hitched in his throat when he heard the voice in his ear. "You can't say you didn't want it." Eric's husky voice whispered behind him.

"Stop it," Ryan growled, but found he couldn't move. He looked up and his widened a little when he saw Eric and Kendrel running towards him.

"This will be interesting won't it," he whipped his head around and glared at the Eric look-a-like. Ryan was positive now that it was an Incubus.

"I've got you figured out." He pushed its hand off of his shoulders. "An Incubus, but you masquerade around as a Succubus. Throws the scent off, thought you had a fool-proof plan."

Its facial expression changed from a smirk to one of anger.

"Ryan!" He heard Kendrel yell behind him and their footsteps stopped behind him. The Incubus looked behind Ryan then back to him, eyes lit with a inner fire. Ryan took a chance and his hand quickly reached up for the sword. The Incubus seemed to read his mind and grabbed his wrist, digging its lengthened nails into his skin. Ryan winced but didn't give it the satisfaction of making a sound.

"It was perfect until you stuck your nose into my business. Now I'll just have to finish what I started with you," it hissed and lunged its other hand forward, sinking its nails into his chest. This time Ryan's eyes widened and he gasped. He could feel something being pulled from inside of him, but also felt some movement behind him.

Suddenly the Incubus turned back into Veronica and screeched, backing up. Ryan saw the sword from his back in front of him and saw that the real Eric wielded it. He had cut the hand that was holding onto his chest. She growled then smirked and took a couple steps back. "No worries, I got what I wanted from you." Ryan watched her then his eyes widened knowing that she was going to disappear. Ryan quickly grabbed the sword from Eric's hand and threw it at her. They all heard her screech again before she disappeared, and the clang of metal against concrete as the sword fell.

"Is she dead?" Eric asked quietly.

"No, but she's wounded. She won't be coming back, at least not in that form." Kendrel walked up on Ryan's other side. She looked at him and instead of some know-it-all smirk, she gave Ryan a sympathetic smile. "Our job here is done. Let's get out of here." She wanted to talk to him about why the Incubus had appeared as Eric, but not with the real man standing beside Ryan.

Ryan nodded and grabbed the sword from the ground and started walking home without another word. Eric looked at Ryan with an indescribable look and followed behind him.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Wish I did though.

A/N: Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnd I present to you the conclusion to Of Men Lies and Dreams. The beginning of the next one should be up soon. Read on!

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Ryan once again found himself seated at in the library at Horatio's mansion. Calleigh and Horatio watched him silently from the doorway as he diligently read through the thick text in front him, as he had for the past twelve hours. They shut the door again and walked down the hall.

"He's only left that room to use the bathroom," Calleigh commented as they walked. "They took care of the Incubus, didn't they? Alexx cleared him of any continuing health problems."

Horatio nodded, and looked straight ahead as he usually did, a small smirk playing on his lips. "They did, as best as they could. I don't think that this has anything to do with a case this time; it's something personal."

Calleigh watched him and shook her head slightly, chuckling. "You know something, as usual. I'm assuming it's not life-threatening or else you'd tell me. Might it have something to do with his missing files?"

"It's not life-threatening to us," Horatio easily avoided giving any details about Ryan's intentions in the library, or answering her question. "Of course, if it isn't handled correctly, it easily could turn around. But we must let him deal with his own demons."

Calleigh nodded and smiled softly. "He's going to be here for a while, isn't he?" Horatio just nodded.

Ryan sighed and closed the book. He slid it onto the pile of books that had yielded no clues or ideas and picked up yet another book. He resigned himself to going through every book in the library if he had to. He was almost shocked at how much he had thought about his parents during this case, but he should have seen it coming. When he sat through that first autopsy with Alexx it had brought up memories of his parents, about the last time he had seen them.

Ryan winced a little and reached up and scratched his shoulder, at the mark that had been burned into his skin. Trying to ignore it, he opened the book and started to read. He had renewed determination to figure out what had happened to his parents.

When Ryan left the library later the next afternoon, he was surprised to see Eric leaning against the wall by his apartment door. He hadn't been home or asleep for two and a half days and he was pretty sure that whatever Eric wanted could wait until tomorrow. He grabbed his keys and walked over, unlocking the door, the two men not saying a word to each other. Ryan walked in and hung up his jacket and Eric shut and locked the door quietly. "Ryan-"

"Look, whatever you have to say, just save it." He turned around and Eric could see how exhausted the younger man was. "I'm just going to get some sleep anyway, and-"

"I know it's hard." Eric said simply, but it was enough to stop Ryan. "Hard to once again be the victim in what you're investigating."

"I'm not a detective, Eric."

"I know that, but it doesn't mean that you still don't solve crimes. It just means you do it in a different and sometimes unorthodox way." Eric said, stepping a little closer to Ryan. Ryan averted his gaze and looked down, the dreams and feelings still fresh in his mind.

"How do you know what I'm going through?" Ryan changed the subject back to what Eric had first mentioned. "You've almost been killed twice?"

"No, only once." Eric said quietly and Ryan almost missed it. He looked up at Eric and blinked. "Listen, shutting yourself out isn't going to help, but I'm not going to force you to talk about it or anything."

"Well, that's good, because I'm not ready to talk about anything that happened." Ryan turned away and walked into his living room with Eric right behind him. "I don't know when I will so don't get your hopes up. Tell Kendrel the same thing because I know that she will push, even if you won't."

"Hey, I have no hold over that woman. That was certainly proven this week," Eric muttered under his breath. "All I'm saying is that I know it must be hard for you right now." Eric wanted to tell him that he knew about his parents too, but then he would have to admit to snooping around Ryan's apartment and he didn't think Ryan would appreciate that.

There were a few minutes of silence between them. Ryan was staring at something with his back to Eric. He tried to read Ryan, to see if he was thinking or just staring off into space from exhaustion. Ryan's eyes had focused on the desk in front of him, and he finally had the time to notice that something was missing, something very important. It finally clicked together.

"Where are they?" Ryan asked softly.

Eric blinked and looked at Ryan. "What?"

"The papers, the files. Where are they?" Ryan still hadn't turned around, he was afraid that if he did, he would lose his temper. "Who has them, you or Kendrel?" His voice was quiet and calm, a dangerous combination in his state.

Eric bit his lip and knew that he would have to tell the truth now. "Kendrel has the originals, I made copies for myself."

"Why?"

"We want to help, Ryan. We know nothing about you and we just want to help you figure this out." Eric wanted to ask why he hadn't been able to find Ryan's records anywhere, but thought that now wasn't the best time.

"It's none of your business. What happened is personal and something that I need to work out. I don't need anyone's help." Ryan's hands had started to shake, but Eric wasn't sure if it was with anger or some other emotion.

"You can't do this on your own Ryan,-" Eric stopped when Ryan turned around. He had expected an argument, but was left standing in the room when Ryan quickly brushed past him. He turned and watched Ryan grab his jacket once again from the rack. "Ryan."

"No, don't." Ryan turned out, putting out his hand to stop Eric. "Just... don't." He opened the door and left, walking down the hall and down the stairs of the building.

Eric sighed and ran his hand through his hair. He grabbed his cell phone and tried calling Ryan's before he got too far. He didn't want to take the risk of receiving a black eye or worse if he chased Ryan down. Eric turned and frowned when Ryan's cell phone rang and was sitting on the table next to him. He hung up and called Kendrel instead. She would know how to handle this.

"This had better be important." Kendrell sounded annoyed, but knew that it was probably because she didn't like talking to Eric.

"Ryan knows that we have those files." Eric got to the point. "He hasn't been home in the past two days and he just left."

"And you let him leave?!" He could hear the rustling of objects in the background and knew that she was getting her stuff and getting ready to leave.

"I didn't let him, he didn't give me a choice," Eric hissed back, trying to stay calm even if she wasn't.

"Do you know how upset he probably is right now? Uck," she growled over the phone. "Do you have any idea of where he's going?"

"No, but he hasn't had any sleep. Who knows what he'll do."

"No shit. Start walking towards the club, and look for Ryan on the way." She hung up and Eric ran his hand through his hair. He had a feeling this wasn't going to end well.

Next time!

What will happen to Ryan? Will Eric be able to find him?

Will Eric ever find out about Ryan's feelings, and will Eric be able to face his own feelings for Ryan?

What happened to Ryan's government files, and why is he not listed even in his parents files?

What's so mysterious about Kendrel? And why is she so fiercely protective of Ryan? (Yes, there is an underlying reason.)

What new adventures await?

All of this continued in the next installment: Painful Admissions


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